Current research in structural biology is focused on understanding the role of enzymes and proteins in regulating cellular metabolism and the way drugs bind to proteins so that more effective drugs which can inhibit viral activity may be developed. Macromolecular crystallography provides information regarding 3D distributions of atoms in biological molecules, and is an important factor in understanding the mechanisms of such diseases as cancer and AIDS. Neutron diffraction holds great promise for crystallography as they interact more strongly with nuclei than do X-rays. While X-ray diffraction gives excellent structural information, neutron diffraction allows structural determination in biological macromolecules where X-ray diffraction fails to reveal the positions of light atoms. Modern neutron sources such as Advanced Neutron Source at ORNL hold great promise for macromolecular crystallography. They have not yet realized their potential due to the lack of an appropriate position sensitive sensor, which limit the practical implementation and growth of diffraction experiments. To address these specific needs we propose to develop a novel position sensitive neutron detector based on a new high resolution, high efficiency microstructured scintillator coupled to a large area a-Si:H detector. The proposed real time digital neutron detector will provide excellent gamma ray discrimination, and detection efficiency, spatial resolution, and dynamic range superior to current systems. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: The proposed detector would offer several performance advantages over the existing large area neutron sensors for structural biology and would be relatively inexpensive to manufacture. This new detector technology would find widespread use in nuclear physics research, material science, biomedical research, and non-destructive testing using neutron radiography and industrial tomography.